


New Years Cleanup

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-03 04:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17277068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: The Jorvik Rangers clean up Mistfall after New Years Eve.





	New Years Cleanup

Alonso remembered a time when Mistfall hadn't been a mess after every New Year. It had been the one good part of Mistfall being closed off to the rest of the world, honestly. Without everyone traipsing through, there hadn't been any tourists here to not clean up their campgrounds. The Mistfall natives were very good at cleaning up after themselves, though, and smart when it came to the forest, to boot. They knew the best camping spots, the dangers of the forest, how to find their way back if the batteries in their torch failed. More than a few times, Alonso or one of the other rangers had been called out to rescue lost campers who'd mistaken the yellow-orange glow of the mushrooms for the lights of Dundull. Not for the first time, Alonso was glad that Mistfall didn't have any Will o' the Wisps to guide travellers into the tranquil waters of Mistfall Lake. And that the Kraken Spirits rumoured to live in the woods were a myth.

But now, every year, there were more than a few campers who ended up getting lost in the middle of the night, blindly following the mushrooms' dim glow and not even seeing the cliff that they were approaching. Mardy was an old hat at rescues by now. Even if initially, Alonso had dreamed of his rescues being of a more heroic nature. And sure, the people who he rescued did act like he was a hero, but it was their own stupidity that had led them to this situation. And Alonso was trying to be nice, but... there had just been way too many people this year, and his patience was wearing thin after a night spent responding to emergency calls that could have so easily been avoided. And now, running on too little sleep, it was his job, as park ranger, to pick up the trash that had been left behind.

"By Aideen," Alonso sighed as he came upon another body slumped against the base of a tree. He dismounted, walking the few steps over to the unconscious woman. At least, he hoped she was merely unconscious. He bent down, resting his fingers against the woman's neck, over her curly black hair and pale skin. Sure enough, a pulse beat steady under his fingers, though it sped up as he drew his fingers away. Blue-painted eyelids fringed with deep black lashes fluttered open, revealing pale blue, bloodshot eyes.

"My hero," the woman swooned (as much as one could swoon against the trunk of a tree, anyway). "You saved me."

"Yep, that's my job," said Alonso, helping her to her feet. The woman stumbled, bumping into Alonso and giving a drunken giggle. Alonso suppressed another sigh. Why were so many people like this? He was a park ranger, he took pride in his job, he wasn't some object to be hit on and flirted with. Maybe he'd chosen the wrong profession for someone with his feelings towards sex and romance.

"How can I ever repay you?" the woman asked, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Ma'am, I'm just doing my job," said Alonso, trying to be nice without being too nice. Though, some people got the two mixed up. "Now, let's get you back to your campsite. Do you remember where it was?"

Alonso sat up straight as the woman leaned heavily over him on Mardy, trying not to be rude without giving the impression that he was interested (which he most certainly wasn't, he was sure that this was a lovely woman but he just wasn't interested). Upon delivering the woman to her campsite (to much twittering from her lady friends), Alonso tucked the phone numbers away in his pocket. One of the other rangers might be interested, or he could finally set up the Campers Lonely Hearts program he'd been considering. After all, in his experience, there was plenty of love to go around. And maybe, hopefully, one of Cupid's arrows would bring two campers together instead of all of the arrows landing on him.

Back at the ranger station, Alonso dismounted Mardy and walked into the building that served as the office for all of the Jorvik Rangers Mistfall division.

"Could I get some backup?" Alonso asked, taking his hat off to run his hand through his brown hair.

"What, is there a bear or something?" Dylan, one of his fellow rangers, asked. Dylan often took the patrol of the road leading from the blocked-off passage to Dundull, going past the ranger station.

"Worse," said Alonso with a grimace. "Flirty people."

"Say no more, I'm on it," said Keema, bouncing over from where she'd been paging through a car magazine. She swept her hand over her black hair, grinning. "I can be a bit of a flirt too."

"I'll come too," said Stanislav, one of the rangers who'd helped out at the Midsummer festival the previous year. That had been a roaring success, the first of what Alonso hoped would be many. "Y'know, just in case they aren't interested in the ladies. No offense, Keema, you're a real ladykiller."

"What can I say? Chicks dig a set of wheels," said Keema, puffing her chest out in pride. "I'll just go warm the engine up."

"Actually, Keema, I was going to ask you to come anyway," said Alonso. "Not to flirt but because we could really use someone to help pick up all of the trash. Your van seems like a good place to put it."

"Darn it," said Keema, frowning. "I was hoping I'd get some numbers today, especially since Rania's taken now."

"I'm sure the right person will come along eventually," said Dylan, patting Keema's shoulder.

"Alright, I guess I can be on trash duty," said Keema. "Maybe I could call my new friend..."

"Or you could make it a challenge," said Alonso. "See how long it takes you to pick up all the trash, see if you can get back before we finish collecting up all of the wayward travellers."

"I can do that," said Keema, her eyes lighting up. "Last one back has to do dish duty!"

"I'll come too," said Ashley, another ranger who'd helped out at the Midsummer festival. "Someone has to make sure that all of the campfires are put out, after all. Fire safety is very serious business."

"Yes it is, ranger Ashley," said Alonso, nodding. "Let's get our horses and head off."

Together, the four rangers set off from the station, having heard Keema peel out of the grounds of the ranger station in her rather beefy van not long ago. Already, they could see her in the distance, jumping out of her blue van with a plastic garbage bag in hand, picking up trash and stuffing it in the bag, and then tossing the tied-up bag back into the back of her van before slamming the door shut and speeding off to the next spot.

"She gets the forest clean pretty quickly, I'll give her that," said Ashley, sitting astride her black Arabian mare (also named Ash).

"No doubt about it," said Dylan. "Alright, Alonso, where's the next distress signal coming from?"

"Ooh, this looks like it could be nasty," said Alonso with a grimace as he read the alert. "It's from the bottom of a cliff."

"Hopefully nobody's fallen," said Stanislav. "There was a group of partiers up on the cliff last night, the one that the South Mistfall race runs on. You know, the one with the ledge that a lot of riders come off on?"

"I'm familiar with it, yes," said Alonso, nodding. "Come on, we've got no time to lose."

Together, the four rangers sped across the forest floor, easily ascending the slope that led up onto the ledge. There was still quite the mess of beer cans up here and a few half-erected tents, clearly, Keema hadn't made it this far yet.

"Hello?" Alonso called, scanning the area for any signs of life. At last, a drunken man stumbled out of one of the tents, his long dark hair hanging in his face. "Daine?"

"Oh, hi," said Daine, raising his hand in a wave.

"Is this the right cliff?" Alonso asked, unable to see anyone else.

"Yeah, there's a guy over there," said Daine, pointing over to another cliff. Alonso made his way over, fearing the worst, but saw that the man only looked like he was asleep. His body wasn't crumpled or unnatural as it would look in death. "Need me to do anything or?"

"Sleep off your hangover," said Stanislav, giving him a friendly smile. "We've got this."

The four rangers made their way down after Ashley had checked for campfires that hadn't been put out properly (to her disappointment, she found none), Alonso taking the lead once again. He was head of the Jorvik Rangers, after all, and this was his job, the others were just helping.

At first, Alonso crouched down in front of the man, gently patting his face.

"Sir? Are you okay? Can you wake up for me?" Alonso asked, keeping his voice gentle. The man did not wake up, only continued snoring. Alonso sighed, sitting back on his heels for a moment before he rose to his feet and walked back over to Mardy. He reached into his saddlebag (containing his medical kit in addition to his survival kit that every Jorvik Ranger worth their salt carried), searching for the smelling salts. He found a bottle of water but, before he could find the smelling salts to wake the man up easily, Ashley stepped forward and emptied her water bottle over the man's face. The man spluttered, coughing and rubbing his hands over his face as he sat up and blinked his eyes open, sending water droplets flying from his eyelashes. He peered up at Ashley, who stood over him.

"That's how you wake up a sleeping guy," said Ashley. "Or how to wake the dead, as we called it in college."

"Ashley!" Alonso chastised her. "That could've gone so badly, he couldn't inhaled water, could've drowned!"

"Relax, Alonso, you're so uptight," said Ashley. Alonso frowned at her. "Besides, it worked, didn't it?"

"Sometimes, I swear, you're as bad as Keema," said Alonso.

"Hey now, I wasn't the one who tried to make a dirtbike track and ended up causing that rockslide that blocked off Northern Mistfall," said Ashley, folding her arms over her chest.

"Where am I?" the drunk guy asked, blinking up at them. He tried to pull himself to his feet, winced, stumbled, and vomited at Alonso's feet.

"That's lovely," said Stanislav, looking a little green himself.

"You get used to it," said Dylan, shrugging.

"Sir, how are you feeling?" Alonso asked.

"Don't you hit on me!" the drunk man slurred, stumbling backwards. He winced again as he rested his left foot on the ground. "Ow, my fucking foot."

"My apologies, I was only inquiring after your wellbeing. I'm a Jorvik Ranger, my name is Alonso, and these are my fellow rangers Dylan, Stanislav, and Ashley."

"Hi there," said Ashley, raising the fingers of the hand that still held her water bottle. The drunk man frowned.

"Did you pour water on me?" the man asked.

"Sorry, I just wanted to wake you up," said Ashley.

"I could've drowned!" the man shouted at her. Alonso mouthed 'I told you so' at her, to which Ashley shot him a glare.

"Are you alright?" Alonso asked again. "Are you injured anywhere?"

"Yeah, my foot," said the man. "I don't wanna ride behind you, though, you flirt, I wanna ride behind him." And he pointed at Stanislav, who grinned and shot finger guns at Alonso. Alonso gave him a very done expression in return.

"Climb aboard, then," said Stanislav, patting the rump of his roan connemara. "This is Missy."

Once the drunk man was seated behind Stanislav, Alonso set off again, taking the drunk man up to the ranger station for medical treatment. Once that was done (the drunk man named Harry flirted extensively with Stanislav, and Alonso was glad to not be on the receiving end of that for once), they returned to the forest. The new years cleanup always took ages, but at least it was never boring. Even if it did bring out the worst (and flirtiest) people.


End file.
